Top California Cities for Vegetarians

TASTE News Service, October 16, 2018 - November 1 is being identified as World Vegan Day and research showing that skipping meat can save the average person at least $750 per year.

Fig Tree Cafe in San Diego Is known for innovative vegan and vegetarian food

With this in mind, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2018's Best Cities for Vegans & Vegetarians as well as accompanying videos. Three California cities were on their top 20 list.

To determine the best and cheapest places for following a plant-based diet, WalletHub compared the 100 largest cities across 16 key indicators of vegan- and vegetarian-friendliness. The data set ranges from the share of restaurants serving meatless options to the cost of groceries for vegetarians to salad shops per capita.

Top 20 Cities for Vegans & Vegetarians

1 New York, NY 11 Washington, DC

2 Portland, OR 12 Tampa, FL

3 Orlando, FL 13 Chicago, IL

4 Seattle, WA 14 Phoenix, AZ

5 San Francisco, CA 15 Miami, FL

6 Los Angeles, CA 16 Atlanta, GA

7 Austin, TX 17 Anaheim, CA

8 Scottsdale, AZ 18 Nashville, TN

9 San Diego, CA 19 Houston, TX

10 Las Vegas, NV 20 Madison, WI

Navratan Korma is a dish of nine vegetables in a creamy onion sauce at Masala Craft in Anaheim

Best vs. Worst

• Scottsdale, Arizona, has the highest share of restaurants serving vegetarian options, 33.44 percent, which is 16.8 times higher than in Laredo, Texas, the city with the lowest at 1.99 percent.

• Scottsdale, Arizona, has the highest share of restaurants serving vegan options, 20.23 percent, which is 37.5 times higher than in Newark, New Jersey, the city with the lowest at 0.54 percent.

• San Francisco has the most community-supported agriculture programs (per square root of population), 0.0128, which is 18.3 times more than in Houston, the city with the fewest at 0.0007.

• New York has the most salad shops (per square root of population), 0.2510, which is 42.5 times more than in Laredo, Texas, the city with the fewest at 0.0059.